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About Birdlegg

While practically every other blues harmonica player of his
generation fell under the spell of Little Walter, Birdlegg is, and always was,
different. Instead, he was captivated by the generation before Jacobs—the one which inspired the virtuoso to
completely redefine postwar blues harmonica in the early 1950s. Harking back to
a style reminiscent of two of the greatest early postwar and country blues
harmonica players, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) and Sonny Terry,
Birdlegg’s expressive, full-tilt playing and singing also brings a fresh and
distinctive approach to traditional, gut-bucket blues—something which has
become all too rare these days.

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1947, Gene “Birdlegg”
Pittman grew up listening to his Georgia-born grandfather, who was a
professional touring musician himself, play country and Delta blues on his
National steel guitar. While in his twenties Birdlegg started picking up the
harmonica, learning every Sonny Terry lick he could wrap his ears around. After
a brief stint in college and a few restless years hitchhiking across the
country looking for answers that he couldn’t find in school, he bought himself
a one-way bus ticket and hopped a Greyhound to California determined to make it
as a musician, landing in Oakland in the mid-1970s.

Once there he dove headfirst into the thriving Bay Area
blues scene, sitting in at every jam session he could find and honing his chops
at such notorious local blues joints as the Eli Mile High Club, the Shalimar
Club and the Fifth Amendment. A natural performer with boundless energy and
enthusiasm, Birdlegg quickly befriended and began performing with some of the
best bluesmen in the area like Sonny Rhodes, Massala Talbert, Haskell “Cool
Papa” Sadler and Mississippi Johnny Waters.

After several years of gigging as a sideman throughout the
Bay Area and encouraged by some of his mentors to branch out on his own, he
formed his own group, Birdlegg and the Tight Fit Blues Band, in 1980. The
band’s lineup would change from time to time but regularly included Texas-born
bass player and singer Country Pete McGill and even once featured legendary
Chess session guitarist Luther Tucker.

Birdlegg slowly started making a name for himself around
Oakland with his high-octane performances, appearing regularly in area clubs
and at festivals throughout the Bay Area. His popularity also eventually led to
several tours in Europe. As self-confident and assured as ever, his band became
one of the hottest around the area for many years as he realized his dream of
making a living playing music. As he liked to tell people, “I don’t do floors,
windows or shoes—I play the Oakland blues!”

He made his first record in 1990 which was issued on 45 RPM
on his own Tight Fit label, and then followed with a short-run cassette before
releasing Meet Me on the Corner more than a decade later. But the excesses of a
musician’s life eventually began taking its toll and after 35 years of ups and
downs on the Oakland scene, Birdlegg decided to make a major move and start over
in Austin, Texas, where he reunited with his ex-wife who he hadn’t seen in
decades. His transition was seamless and he started gigging regularly around
Austin in a matter of weeks, quickly becoming one of the most exciting and
active bluesmen there in recent memory.

The claim “hardest working man in show business” has become
somewhat overwrought since its originator passed away on Christmas Day several
years ago. But if anyone in the blues business today is truly qualified to live
up to the high standards set by the master of funk James Brown himself, it
certainly is Birdlegg. From the moment he hits the stage to the very last song
of the night which characteristically ends with Birdlegg soaked to the bone
with sweat and five pounds lighter than when he started, the energy level
doesn’t let up for a second.